The allure of shooting street is largely to do with mystery—the mystery of what I might out there, of what stories lie behind the apparent ordinariness. There's nothing quite like fog to emphasize that mystery for a photo.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/2, shutter 1/800 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened and cropped; curves for exposure and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The palm trees sticking up over the railing make that part of the frame look a bit cluttered and draw the eye away from the intended focal point, which is the bus stop.

"Jason, no playing in the water."

"I'm not."

"And no touching the water."

"I'm not."

"And no getting in the fountain."

"I'm not!"

"You know what, just step back from the water."

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in aperture-priority exposure mode. Aperture f/4, shutter 1/400 sec (0 EV), ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: straightened; curves for contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: A little bit wider to get more of the tile and more of his hands and arms would have been good.

Our friends James and Mel gave us a family membership to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center for Christmas, and this weekend we took our first trip to check it out. Jason liked the kids' area a lot but, as you can see, he had fun in the main galleries as well. I'm not sure he really grasped the science just yet, but that'll come.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.4, shutter 1/125 sec, ISO 1600. Post-processing in Aperture 3: curves for highlight recovery and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: A higher angle might have been nice, in order to get more of the shadows in the frame. The sign on the wall is also a bit distracting.

Behind the San Diego Convention Center atop a couple of extra-wide breakwaters are the Embarcadero Marina Park. On the south side of the southern breakwater is a little fishing pier, and on that pier there are often a bunch of pigeons. And fishermen and buckets and fishing rods, but I felt a little too intimidated to take pictures of them.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.4, shutter 1/4000 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing: cropped; pushed recovery adjustment; two curves layers to reduce exposure and add contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: The main thing for this one is to do a better job getting the exposure right in camera. Either waiting for better light or using an ND filter would be good for that.

This is the other reflection shot I took on my downtown shoot two weeks ago. I'm not sure this one works quite as well as the one I posted on Monday, but I still like it. I'm definitely going to have to develop a real series around this idea.

Technical information: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/1.4, shutter 1/1000 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: cropped in close; several curves layers for highlight recovery, black point, and contrast.

Thoughts for improvement: For a couple of reasons, I wish I had gotten in much closer. First, I don't particularly like the fence and the man's shoulder in the foreground. Second, I ended up cropping out about 3/4 of the image, which makes for a much lower resolution final image.

This one is a "B-side" from a quick shoot back in November. I had a really hard time deciding between this shot and a similar one when it was time to post. I ended up going with the other one because I liked the action of the wave and the textures in the extra rocks, but I've always liked the sparseness of this image and the roughness of the water. Which do you think is better?

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 55-200mm VR DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Focal length 200mm, aperture f/5.6, shutter 1/250 sec, ISO 400. Post-processing in Aperture 3: yellow filter BW preset; several curves layers for contrast and exposure adjustment; desaturated yellows; burned over the seal; intensify contrast brush over the water; added vignetting.

Thoughts for improvement: I can't decide if the vignetting is too heavy or not.

This shot is from my morning outing downtown a couple of weeks ago. I don't know what it was that made me stop for this shot, but the more I look at it, the more I like it. I like how the window in the reflection frames the model's eye, and how it almost looks like she's holding up the building. But beyond the individual elements, there's something compelling about it, but I can't quite put my finger on what. You might think that this diminishes the value of the shot, since not even I know what's good about it, but I find that these little accidental moments are one of the best parts of photography, especially since it invites me to investigate the ideas I stumble across in future work.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 50mm f/1.4G lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/5.6, shutter 1/50 sec, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: levels to darken shadows and brighten highlights.

Thoughts for improvement: I don't really know what I could improve about this particular shot, but I think that in general what I can take away from it is an opportunity to further study what in it works for me and how I can use that in the future.

I didn't get a chance to get out and shoot this weekend, so this week we're taking another trip through the archives.

I took this photo in August at the San Diego DSLR club's group shoot in Belmont Park. It's not an ideal technical image, what with the lens flare ghosts from pointing the camera straight into the streetlamps. I keep coming back to it, though, because I think it represents a turning point in my approach to photography—this was the first time I ever approached a stranger and asked if I could take his picture.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, in aperture-priority exposure mode. Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/40 sec (+0 EV), ISO 1600. No post-processing.

Thoughts for improvement: As I mentioned, the ghosting is a little awkward. I should probably also have toned down the lights in post a bit.

I'm all out of new pictures for the week (actually, I ran out on Tuesday), so it's back to the archives. This one is from the trip we took to Legoland back in October. This house is part of a Duplo-themed toddler playground near the back of the park. It has stairs up one side and a slide coming down the other, and I think it may have been Jason's favorite part of Legoland. Which made me extra glad that our tickets were free.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40 and Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, in manual exposure mode. Aperture f/4, shutter 1/500 sec, ISO 400. Post-processing in Aperture 3: brought up midtones slightly with curves; burned over everything except Jason, himself.

Thoughts for improvement: I could probably stand to crop out a bit of the bottom.

All I can say is, dang, Juliette is a lucky woman.

Technical info: Shot with a Nikon D40, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G DX lens, and Nikon SB-400 flash (bounced off the ceiling). Manual exposure mode, TTL flash mode (-2 EV). Aperture f/1.8, shutter 1/40, ISO 200. Post-processing in Aperture 3: WB adjustment; +1 exposure; curves for contrast; slight overall desaturation; further desaturated reds and yellows; retouched a sit on the side of my nose.

Thoughts for improvement: I've never been able to decide whether or not I like the fact that the auto-focus picked my glasses instead of my eyes in this one. But, honestly, the main thing I wish with this photo is that I had done something about my nose hair beforehand.